Camera Data

Camera Model: Canon 10D

Lens: Canon EF 100 mm f/2.8 USM

Shutter Speed: 1/8 sec

Aperture: f/16

ISO Speed Rating: 100

Dark Side of the Egg - Olympia, Washington (April, 2006)

The last time I watched the movie Casablanca, it wasn’t because it’s one of the classic films of all times. It was more to study the lighting used during the 1940s. I’m not really a student of film, but I’ve often thought that a defining characteristic of a film noir is its visual texture, mood and style, rather than the film’s content. When I look at the scenes in Casablanca, with half illuminated faces, deep shadows, and high contrast sets, I get a sense of unmistakable style. 

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to see an exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum called the Great American Thing. The exhibit featured the work of artists from 1915-1935 who were capturing the “essence of America”.  In retrospect, I think what struck me most was the subject matter considered modern at the time, is now just so common place, things we take for granted now. There were photos of typewriter keys, suspension bridges and skyscrapers. There were paintings of jazz clubs, and poster art of products like Lucky Strikes. 

Somehow through all this I’ve developed this simmering desire to explore photography from the perspective of the past while at the same time attempting to develop my own sense of style. 

This photo, “The Dark Side of the Egg”, is simply a study in light, used to capture the virtues of the egg.  Here, I think the underlying question of the day is, as Wikipedia poses, which came first, the evolutionary egg, or the creationist chicken?

DouglasWalch@comcast.net